Martin Lewis issues leasehold warning and urges Labour to 'get a handle on it'

Martin Lewis has issued a warning to leaseholders as he urged the new Labour Party government to "get a handle" on an issue. The BBC Sounds star, who is an ITV regular, spoke out on Twitter, now X, over a delay in the Leasehold Bill.

He warned: "I can almost hear the collective groan of #leaseholders at yet another delay in sorting the leasehold mess out. Someone really needs to get a handle on this..." Long-awaited reforms to the leasehold system in England and Wales have been delayed for several months due to “flaws” in legislation passed by the previous Conservative government, the housing minister has said.

Matthew Pennycook told the Commons it would take longer than expected to bring into force reforms originally passed by the former housing secretary and Consrvative Party MP Michael Gove in the dying days of the last parliament.

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The delay to the Gove reforms was welcomed by freeholders. Natalie Chambers, the director of the Residential Freehold Association, said: “We welcome the government’s recognition of the complexities around implementing leasehold reform, as well as the serious flaws in the legislative approach taken by the previous government.”

Pennycook said on Thursday that the government would consult on that bill with a view to publishing a draft in the second half of next year. “Alongside other vital reforms such as ending the injustice of ‘fleecehold’ private housing estates and banning leasehold flats, the draft leasehold and commonhold bill we will publish next year will set us on the path away toward a commonhold future,” he said.

Matthew Pennycook Minister of State for Housing and Planning Labour, said: For far too many leaseholders, the reality of home ownership has fallen woefully short of the dream – their lives marked by an intermittent, if not constant, struggle with punitive and escalating ground rents; unjustified permissions and administration fees; unreasonable or extortionate charges; and onerous conditions imposed with little or no consultation. This is not what home ownership should entail."